So for this unit, we got to learn how to use library databases to look for resource books that we would do research with for our topics. As I have told you before, mine is Profanity. Now, I suppose you can use the word "profanity" in all of your searches, but you won't always get what you are looking for. So I went to thesaurus.com to find some synonyms for well, you guessed it... profanity. Some of the main synonyms that came up included the obvious, "cursing", "swearing", "obscenity", and there were also some rather humerus ones like "four-letter word" and "no-no". I'm not kidding! You can go see for yourself! Whoops, I'm getting off track, so anyway, for this unit we had to go to different library databases (including Clark Cannell Library, Summit Research, Books 24x7, and Google Books).
1) For the Clark Cannell Library (which is the library at my college, just in case you didn't know that), I have to list the search terms I used, I have to cite one book, list the subject headings, state weather I used a circulating or an E-book, give the location in the library as well as the call number, and explain what clues I had in the book record that lead me to believe that this book was credible. So this is what I got:
I tried searching "profanity", I got nothing. I tried "history of profanity", still nothing. So then I tried "swearing", and I finally got 2 hits! So now that I finally had something to choose from, which is a circulating book, here is what I chose:
Rawson, Hugh. Wicked Words: a treasury of curses, insults, put-downs, and other formerly unprintable terms from Anglo-Saxon times to present. New York: Crown Publishers, 1989. Book.
The subject headings were:
- English language-- Slang-- Dictionaries
- English language-- Etymology-- Dictionaries
- English language-- Obscene Words-- Dictionaries
- Blessing and Cursing-- Dictionaries
- Invective-- Dictionaries
- Swearing-- Dictionaries
And what clues did I have that lead me to believe this book was credible? To be perfectly honest, I didn't. I just picked one of me two options. And quite frankly the other option wasn't that much different.
2) For the Summit Research, I again had to list the search terms that I used, cite one book, list the subject headings, give the location and call number, and state what clues I had in the book record that lead me to believe this book was credible. But this time I also had to explain how my search was different from that of the Cannell Library search.
Again, I tried searching "profanity" but instead of getting no results like I had expected, I got over 30,000 results!!! The book that I chose this time was:
Hughes, Geoffery. Swearing: a social history of foul language, oaths, and profanity in English. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1991. Book.
The subject headings I that was given to me:
- Swearing-- History
- English language-- Social aspects
- English language-- Obscene words
What clues did I have that lead me to believe this book was credible? I recognized the author from the search I had just done in the Cannell Library's database, plus while doing this search on Summit, there were at least four other books that I had seen by the same author. Which helped me in trusting this book a little bit more.
How did my search on Summit differ from my search on Cannell? Well, as I have mentioned before, I was able to use only one search term for Summit and got well over 30,000 results, but in using the exact same search term in Cannell Library, I got nothing. So, while using Cannell Library can help, I feel that using Summit Research, I will get more reliable (hopefully) sources available to me.
3) Books 24x7 - IT Pro Collection of E-Books. I admit I was a little iffy about trying this one, mainly because I had never heard of it, but much to my surprise IT was actually very much like any other library catalog that I had used before. So needless to say, I warmed up to it quite quickly. The basic search was fine, but the advanced search is much more through. Not only does it use what ever keyword(s) you have already put into the basic search, but it also allows you to choose additional keywords and where exactly you would like it to look for them (i.e.: the Text, Title, Author/Publisher, ISBN, Code Listings, and Notes). I do very much plan on using this database much more often in the future.
4) And finally we had to use Google Books. I like Google Books, because I've used it before and I actually knew what I was doing. So for this part of the assignment, we had to choose one book that looked like it could be useful for our topics, and again list the search terms used, cite the book, and explain what clues I had that lead me to believe this book would be trustworthy.
The search terms I used were "profanity" and "cursing". That was all it took to get thousands upon thousands of results. So the book that sounded rather intriguing to me was"
Jay, Timothy. Cursing in America; a psycholinguistic study of dirty language in the courts, in the movies, in the schoolyards, and on the streets. Philadelphia: John Benjamins North America, 1992. Book.
What clues did I have that lead me to believe this would be a credible source? Well for one, the 5-star rating system that Google provides, and upon reading a little bit of the book, the author is professionally objective about the topic. Like its purpose is solely to inform, and not to convince me that one side is better than the other.
This unit was rather informative. Out of all of the databases we learned to use, I would have to say that Books 24x7 and Google Books were the best because they provided much more possibilities and more ways to refine you searches. But Cannell Library and Summit Research have their own advantage in that they have the books on hand and you don't have to buy them in order to fully use them. So really all four of them have their own advantages and I plan on using all four of them.
Hi, Ashley:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your report. I was hoping you'd use ASAP to evaluate your findings. You mentioned authors but not publishers or age, for your topic perhaps currency isn't super important but an academic or scholarly press would be a good indicator. Summit is a great resource and provides access to many resources. I'm glad you found the databases/catalogs useful and will use them in the future.
Cheers,
Andrea